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Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2005 16:30:16 +0100
From: Erik Trulsson <ertr1013@student.uu.se>
To: Greg Foster <gfoster9055@comcast.net>
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Subject: Re: upgrading FreeBSD
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On Wed, Feb 02, 2005 at 10:13:11AM -0500, Greg Foster wrote:
> I was wondering if it is possible to upgrade from FreeBSD 3.2 to 5.3 
> without doing a fresh install, and if possible what issues might I have.

Possible: Yes.
Recommended: Absolutely not!

You will almost certainly have to do it in several steps.
The sequence 
 3.2 -> 3.5.1
 3.5.1 -> 4.1
 4.1 -> 4.11
 4.11 -> 5.3
*should* work, but no guarantees.
Remember to read /usr/src/UPDATING very carefully before each step -
most problems that you *will* encounter are documented there.

The sequence
 backup all data
 make a fresh install of 5.3
 restore data from backup
will almost certainly be quicker, simpler, and less prone to
catastrophic failure.

(Making a backup of all important data is a *very* good idea anyway.)


-- 
<Insert your favourite quote here.>
Erik Trulsson
ertr1013@student.uu.se